


Truffle Kerfuffle

by Blanquette



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Convenience Store, Awkwardness, Grocery Store, Ice Cream, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-21 00:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11932272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blanquette/pseuds/Blanquette
Summary: Hoseok goes to buy ice cream at 4am quite a lot.





	Truffle Kerfuffle

**Author's Note:**

> That's what happens when I keep postponing writing my thesis.

1.

The night is cold and humid, fogging up the glassy walls of the corner store. It’s dark outside, really dark, and Hoseok feels like the tiny shop is the only existing thing in the world anymore, that if he leaves the cold halo of the fluorescent lights, he will just fall off into nothingness. He’s the only one in the store, him and the tall, lanky guy that is vaguely trying to stay awake behind the counter. It’s close to 4am and he came to get ice cream.

Hoseok takes way too much time choosing the exact flavor he wants. There’s not much choice, and he settles for a rather expensive strawberry pint. He’s half-way to the counter when he realizes a guy buying an entire pint of ice cream at 4am on a week day must look rather pathetic, so he goes back and chooses two beers at random, as if someone would be waiting for him. It’s only when the cashier looks at him through heavy-lidded eyes, lips slightly drawn up in a smirk, that he thinks he probably just made it worse.

Hoseok shifts in place when the guy takes his damn time ringing up his items and reads him his total in a slight drawl. He’s out of the shop in a flash, crossing the street that leads him back to his goshiwon, just a few meters away. Punching in the door code, he looks back to the little shop, that seems like an island of light in this dark, empty neighborhood. Through the foggy windows he can see the cashier, a black mass sprawled over the counter, head buried in his arms. Me too, pal, he thinks, just as the door opens and he runs up the staircase to the tiny room he occupies on the second floor.

 

2.

It’s 4am again, three days later, and Hoseok did debate going to someplace else, but the cashier probably doesn’t remember him, and the store is just _there_ , not even five minutes from his building. This time he forgoes the beer, decides to own up to it, and puts a pint of chocolate ice cream down on the counter with a determined look on his face. It has fudge in it.

The cashier rings it up, stealing a glance at Hoseok with the same sleepy eyes, and lazily starts putting it in a bag.

“Didn’t like the strawberry?”

Hoseok grimaces. So not only did this cashier remembered him, he remembered the exact flavor of his ice cream.

“Got a bit too sweet after a while.”

“You ate it all in one go?”

The guy looks at him, his eyes wide opened. He’s got pretty big eyes, when he actually opens them, Hoseok thinks. Pretty big and also just pretty. Hoseok blushes.

“I don’t have a freezer so… yeah.”

The guy nods, with an expression akin to admiration soothing his features. He got a tiny face. Hoseok stares.

“If you want the goods, you’ll need to pay me.”

He’s smirking, and Hoseok startles but then, oh yeah, he’s talking about the ice cream. His blush accentuates; he hastily pays, grabs the change with a muffled thank you and all but runs out into the night. It’s slightly raining now, and Hoseok welcomes the cold droplets on his face. Well. It could probably have gone worse.

Again, he stares back to the island of cold lights before opening his building’s door, and again, the cashier is sprawling on the counter, this time scrolling through something on his phone. He feels a blush creeping back to his cheeks and hurries to his room, trying and failing to not feel like an idiot.

He eats the ice cream in front of a movie where everybody has the cashier’s face, for some reason.

 

3.

This time when he enters, the area behind the counter is empty. Hoseok relaxes, and strides to the back of the store, where they keep the fridges for the beverages, and, of course, for the ice creams. He grabs a pack of spicy ramen as he goes, because for once, he’s actually hungry for some semblance of real food too.

They had new arrivals and the choice is cornelian.

“I’d go with cinnamon bun.”

The voice is just next to his ear and Hoseok jumps, turning around to face the cashier who just smiles at him, amused.

“You seem to have a hard time deciding.”

“Where the heck did you come from.”

“Back room.”

The cashier points, and there’s a slightly ajar door Hoseok never noticed just right of the fridges.

“Oh. Never noticed that.”

“Yeah, well. It’s not that interesting.”

There’s a silence and Hoseok stares again. The cashier let’s himself be scrutinized, a sly smile upturning his full lips.

“Liking what you see?”

“What? No.”

  The guy cocks an eyebrow at him and Hoseok can feel himself blush again.

“Well, no, I mean. You’re pretty but I guess you already knew that.”

The guy laughs, and for once, Hoseok genuinely smiles. He has a nice laugh, that spreads to his whole face, making his eyes crinkle.

“Okay, I prefer being called handsome, but I’ll take it.”

Hoseok smiles again, and the guy suddenly has a pensive look on his face. It feels like the universe takes a pause, the two of them just looking at each other in this small, too-bright shop lost in the city. It’s gone in an instant and Hoseok is left with a strange feeling in his stomach, that he’s too embarrassed to acknowledge. So he just grabs the cinnamon bun ice cream out the fridge and the cashier silently leads him up to the counter.

This time, when he turns around at the door of his building, he’s pretty sure the guys waves at him.

 

4.

“Student?”

“What?”

It’s vanilla caramel this time. Hoseok didn’t even need help deciding.

“You a student?”

“Why?”

“Well it’s either that or unemployed, I went with the less stigmatized option.”

Hoseok absently nods, watching the guy’s slender fingers ring up his item, take his money, put the ice cream in a bag, a bit unnecessarily. His fingers are pretty too. Everything about him is pretty.

“It’s just. I don’t sleep well. I eat ice cream in front of a movie and it calms me down.”

The guy hums in understanding and holds out the black plastic bag for him to take. He doesn’t remark that Hoseok never really gave an answer.

“We have a TV in the back room.”

“Cool”, says Hoseok, because he doesn’t know what else to say. He takes the bag, says his farewells and goes out, missing the guy’s slightly crestfallen look. It’s only at his door, when he looks back, as always, and see a tall figure retreating towards the back of the store that it hits him, what the guy had probably been trying to say.

He berates himself all the way to his room and stress-eats the whole ice cream in under fifteen minutes.

 

5.

It’s 4am again. The guy is behind the counter this time, and smiles at Hoseok when he enters. Hoseok smiles back. Lingers a little. He should probably say something but they just stare at each other again. So he shrugs and goes straight to the ice creams before it could become awkward. He figures it already is. It’s already been 5 minutes and he can’t even focus on the ice creams, when a voice screams at him from the front of the store.

“Cheesecake! Take cheesecake.”

He does.

He looks sheepish when he puts it on the counter, going back to grab two bags of chips as an afterthought, putting them neatly next to the cold pint. The cashier raises his eyebrows at him and slowly starts to ring his items.

“I really hope you’re working out if you’re gonna binge eat all this by yourself.”

Hoseok deflates a bit. He was pretty sure it was more obvious that well, yeah, he is. The cashier looks at him again, seems to take in his broad shoulders and defined arms for the first time, and stifles a smile.

“Well, I guess you are.”

“I really hoped it would be more obvious.”

“Should come in bare chested next time.”

“It’s too cold.”

“Cause you would do it if it wasn’t?”

“Maybe.”

He most definitely would not but if the guy keeps smiling like that maybe he could be convinced. The cashier pushes his bag towards him but Hoseok doesn’t take it right away, glancing towards the door and the night waiting on the other side, finding he doesn’t really want to go back to it right away, wondering if last time’s missed opportunity can happen again.

“What’s your name? I keep thinking of you as the cashier guy, it doesn’t feel right.”

“You’re thinking of me?”

The cashier is smirking again and Hoseok blushes immediately, already regretting his words. But thankfully, the other doesn’t give him more grief.

“Chae Hyungwon. Who are you?”

‘Who are you’ seems to call for such a bigger answer than just his name, but Hoseok isn’t sure how he would formulate it. He doesn’t really know anymore. _I_ _’m someone who sleeps a lot during the day, not much at night, goes to the gym, eats, and sleeps some more. There_ _’s not much else._

“Shin Hoseok.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Same.”

There’s nothing left to do or say, the items are paid for and packed up, but Hoseok glances towards the door again, and his mind traces the exact steps he will take once outside, up to his tiny room, where he sits under his covers to binge eat and watch some movie he’ll barely follow the plot of. It doesn’t seem so appealing. So he turns back to Hyungwon, who seems to be looking at him expectantly.

“Actually, one of that chips bag is for you. If you like it. You tried to invite me the other day, right? I got it only later. I’m a bit stupid sometimes.”

Hyungwon laughs. It’s light and airy and his face scrunches up and Hoseok likes it. He’s blushing right up to his ears but for once he doesn’t really mind. The night is still outside the door and again, it feels like behind those fogged up windows there’s nothing. He’s in a tiny, too-lit submarine launched into nothingness and the only other crewmember is a laughing Hyungwon, who’s taking out two bags of chips and a pint of cheesecake ice-cream out of a black plastic bag.

“I thought that either I was being too subtle and you didn’t get it, or you did get it and just wasn’t interested.”

Hoseok nods, eyes fixated on Hyungwon slender hands, still gripping the chips packages.

“I don’t know if there’s anything good on TV now, though.”

“Can we even do this?”

Hyungwon shrugs.

“There’s never anyone at this hour except you. No one will ever know if I take a two hours break.”

Hoseok just nods, and Hyungwon comes out from behind the counter, goes to lock the door of the shop. That’s it, it’s just them now, locked in, standing awkwardly under artificial lights. Or maybe it’s only Hoseok that’s feeling awkward, because Hyungwon just decidedly grabs him by the wrists and he trails after him to the little back room.

There’s nothing much in it. A stool and a creaky folding chair, a small TV nudged on a shelf between packs of ramen and some more chips. Hyungwon sets the ice cream and the chips on an upturned cardboard box and goes back into the shop to find plastic spoons he doesn’t bother paying for.

They sit in silence, munching on the potato chips and taking spoonful of ice cream, having settled on watching reruns of a variety show because there’s not much else at 4am. Hyungwon finds it hilarious and Hoseok just watches him laugh. He uses his whole body, periodically slapping his thigh or putting a hand over his chest. Sometimes he would grab at Hoseok when something particularly funny comes on, and Hoseok just can’t help but stare at the hand on his arm.

Nothing really happens. They just watch TV and eat and laugh and kill away the small hours of the night. But it’s nice. Hyungwon is funny and warm and doesn’t care one bit about Hoseok’s awkwardness or how bland he thinks he is. When he goes back home this time, the night is swallowed by streaks of orange coming over the horizon. In the morning light, he can clearly see Hyungwon pressing his face against the glass window, looking horrible, waving at him.

 

6.

It becomes a habit of theirs. They stowaway in the tiny back room and watch stupid tv shows until Hyungwon’s shift closes to an end, and Hoseok goes home with a heavy stomach and a light heart.

There’s lots of ice cream. Cookie and cream, vanilla pecan, cheesecake again, because Hyungwon seems to really like it. They discover they both actually quite dislike coffee ice cream and that vanilla anything is decidedly the best, even if Hoseok retains a soft spot for chocolate brownie.

Hoseok retains a soft spot for a lot of things. The way Hyungwon laughs, the sound of his voice. How he looks sleepy all the time and makes the weirdest faces. How he can be surprisingly deep, just to say the stupidest thing the next second. Yeah, Hoseok’s pretty far gone. But he doesn’t say anything, and Hyungwon doesn’t say anything, and too soon, way too soon, when Hoseok shows up again at 4:16 it’s not Hyungwon anymore behind the counter.

 

7.

He tries not to look too shocked but he knows he’s staring, and the new guy looks at him with raised eyebrows. So he bows awkwardly, and the guy just as awkwardly returns the salute before Hoseok makes a beeline for the ice creams. He tries to ignore the black pit that opens in his stomach when he chooses cheesecake, and refuses to look at the guy when he puts it down on the counter.

Although, when he’s met with a wave of laughter, he has little choice but to look up, and the guy looks delighted. He has dimples like the grand canyon. Hoseok tries to look offended.

“You’re the ice cream man, aren’t you?”

“Sorry?”

“Hyungwon-hyung got me this shift when he quit. He told me about you.”

“Oh.”

There’s a silence, as if the guy was waiting for more out of Hoseok. When nothing comes, he seems to finally remember what his job is and rings up the ice cream.

“You don’t want to know what he told me?”

Hoseok doesn’t. He wants to go home and take a nap. But he was raised to be polite, so he tries.

“What did he tell you?”

The guy beams at him again, gets the pencil he had tucked behind his ear and starts scribbling something on Hoseok’s ice cream receipt.

“Well, he told me really gross stuff, but he also said you could call him.”

Instead of putting the receipt in the bag he extends it to Hoseok, who takes it in between his fingers. The guy doesn’t let go.

“Although, don’t call him if it’s not for asking him out or something equally embarrassing. You guys are grown ass adults, I can’t believe you just watched TV and ate ice cream. Like seriously. What’s up with that.”

The guy lets go of the receipt at the same time Hoseok’s face bursts into flames. He takes his bag and his receipt and what’s left of his dignity, gets out of there as fast as he can. He’s practically sure he can hear the guy going “tsk tsk” behind his back. He doesn’t look back when he gets to his door.

 

8.

“I’m pretty sure your dongsaeng insulted me.”

There’s the familiar laugh, and Hoseok feels warmth spreading in his chest.

“Yeah, he’d do that. Sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“It’s okay.”

“You should stop eating so much ice cream anyway, it can’t be good.”

“Yeah.”

There’s a lull. It’s too early or too late to call someone but Hyungwon hadn’t seemed to mind. Hoseok is staring at the fading wallpaper on the wall next to his desk. He wishes he was staring at something else.

“Did he tell you anything else?”

“He said I shouldn’t call you unless it was to ask you out. He also said something about being grown ass adults, and then he tsk-ed.”

“Are you?”

“What?”

“Asking me out.”

Hoseok has not much to lose at this point.

“I guess I am. I mean, if you say yes, I definitely am. If you say no, then I’m definitely not.”

“Courageous.”

“I know.”

There’s a laugh again, and then Hoseok is scribbling down a date and a place on a sticky note, that he pins on the wallpaper. He doesn’t know it yet, but it’s the first of a long series.


End file.
